The Rainmaker ANNOTATION
Bestselling author John Grisham returns to the courtroom for the first time since A Time to Kill to weave this riveting tale of legal intrigue and corporate greed. Combining suspense, narrative momentum, and humor as only John Grisham can, The Rainmaker provides another spellbinding, thrill-a-minute read.
FROM THE PUBLISHER
In this courtroom thriller, a young man barely out of law school finds himself taking on one of the most powerful, corrupt, and ruthless companies in America—and exposing a complex, multibillion-dollar insurance scam.... In his final semester of law school Rudy Baylor is required to provide free legal advice to a group of senior citizens, and it is there that he meets his first "clients," Dot and Buddy Black. Their son, Donny Ray, is dying of leukemia, and their insurance company has flatly refused to pay for his medical treatments. Rudy soon realizes that the Blacks have been shockingly mistreated by the huge company, and that he just may have stumbled upon one of the largest insurance frauds anyone's ever seen—and one of the most lucrative and important cases in the history of civil litigation. The problem is, Rudy's flat broke, has no job, hasn't even passed the bar, and is about to go head-to-head with one of the best defense attorneys—and powerful industries—in America.
FROM THE CRITICS
Michiko Kakutani
In "The Rainmaker," Mr. Grisham peppers his story with lots of behind-the-scenes glimpses of courtroom maneuverings and informative little asides about the psychology of defense motions, plea-bargaining and jury selection....Mr. Grisham makes only the most perfunctory effort to tie all these elements together into a coherent plot and makes even less of an attempt to relate them in an interesting or believable fashion. -- New York Times
Publishers Weekly
Grisham's intricate, spellbinding sixth novel differs from his last fewit's his only book with first-person narration and his first since his debut to be set in a courtroombut the trademark Grisham touches are in place. Rookie attorney Rudy Baylor is the customary David fighting a legal Goliath (here a multibillion-dollar insurance company), and the suspense builds with impeccable pacing despite workaday prose. When the modestly sized law firm that contracted for his future services unexpectedly merges with a tony Ivy League firm, Rudy finds himself without a job and bankrupt. Filing a $10 million lawsuit takes away some of the sting, as does a lonely elderly woman's offer of low rent on a small apartment in exchange for rewriting her will. To make a living, Rudy finds himself chasing ambulances for a racketeering shyster, leading to his becoming enthralled with a beautiful young woman hospitalized by her husband's murderous attack. When Rudy agrees to represent the parents of a dying 22-year-old denied insurance coverage for a bone-marrow transplant, he finds that he is up against the firm that broke contract with him. Melding the courtroom savvy of A Time to Kill with the psychological nuance of The Chamber, imbued with wry humor and rich characters, this bittersweet tale, the author's quietest and most thoughtful, shows that Grisham's imagination can hold its own in a courtroom as well as on the violent streets outside. Major ad/promo; large-print edition, ISBN 0-385-47512-8; audio rights to BDD Audio. (May)
Library Journal
Narrator Frank Muller's voice is just right for conveying both lawyer Rudy Baylor's early cynicism and restoration in Grisham's crowd-pleasing 1995 title. The story pits Rudy against two Goliaths: a downtown Memphis law firm and a scandalously inhumane insurance company. Tension rises as Rudy builds the case of a poor family whose son, in need of a transplant they cannot afford, is dying because their claim, covered in their policy, has been denied by the insurance company. Things become ominous, as in all Grisham stories, but there is a humorous subplot and a romance. We begin to care for Rudy as he sheds a moral bankruptcy developed in pursuit of his law degree and regains his original interest in the law as a way to fight injustice. An excellent production; recommended.Mark Pumphrey, Polk Cty P.L., Columbus, N.C.
Home
